The present disclosure relates to a sheet feeding device feeding a sheet, and an image reading device and an image forming apparatus including this sheet feeding device.
As a sheet feeding device feeding a sheet, the following technique is known. This sheet feeding device feeds the sheet one by one from a sheet loading part to a sheet conveying path. The sheet feeding device includes a sheet feeding roller and a separation pad. The sheet feeding roller is driven to rotate, thereby feeding the sheet in a sheet conveying direction. The separation pad comes into contact with the sheet feeding roller, thereby forming a nip part with a circumference face of the sheet feeding roller.
The sheet is inserted to the nip part between the sheet feeding roller and separation pad and fed by the rotation of the sheet feeding roller. When the sheets loaded in the sheet loading part are adhered to each other by static electricity, there is a malfunction (overlapped feeding) that several sheets are inserted to the nip part and conveyed. By contrast, for example, there is a technique of eliminating the static electricity on the sheet (i.e. static-eliminating the sheet) by an electro-conductive member. In an intermediate tray to which the sheet is carried, the electro-conductive member comes into contact with a width alignment guide controlling a position of the sheet, and then, by the electro-conductive member, the sheet is static-eliminated.
In the above-mentioned technique, the sheet is static-eliminated by bringing the electro-conductive member into contact with the sheet loaded in the sheet loading part. In such a case, if many sheets are loaded, there is a problem that the static-elimination is insufficient for the sheets and that the sheets are overlappedly fed.